Markets

Investment manager BlackRock, Inc. (BLK) on Friday caught a big upgrade from analysts at Goldman Sachs.

The firm said it boosted its rating on BLK from “Neutral” to “Buy” with a $200 price target, suggesting a 17% upside to the stock’s Thursday closing price of $170.80.

Goldman cited multiple reasons for the upgrade, including “(1) BLK’s diversified AUM mix with a large, sticky institutional client base (88% of AUM) is likely to provide downside protection in the current volatile market; (2) BLK historically sees below-average multiple compression and above-average organic growth rate during down cycles; and (3) BLK has underperformed peers by 7% YTD, partly on concerns over Barclay’s stake, but last week’s secondary alleviates the overhang and the $1 bn buyback and new debt deal partly offset market depreciation while improving trading liquidity.”

BlackRock shares fell $3.25, or -1.9%, in premarket trading Friday.

The Bottom Line
We recently began recommending shares of Blackrock (BLK) when the stock was trading at $173.97. The company has a 3.51% dividend yield, based on last night’s closing stock price of $170.80.

BlackRock, Inc. (BLK) is a “Recommended” dividend stock, holding a Dividend.com DARS™ Rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks, as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here.